It’s been a great year for expensive cars

It may seem that a lot of the economic news these days is grim related to inflation and rising interest rates and the fall in value of your Tesla stock NFT (a real double whammy there). But turn that frown on its head because 2022 was a record year for Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce! That means rich people are still optimistic about the economy. And when rich people are bullish about the economy, well, what could go wrong?

Ferrari is still sluggishly crunching its numbers after a second cappuccino and Porsche says it will count its points after just a few more laps of the Nurburgring, but at least some of the results are in, and they’re rosy. Let’s start with the Bovine from Bologna, Lamborghini.

Last year Lamborghini delivered 9233 cars, a new record. The US was the number one market with 2,721 cars delivered (US! US!) and overall sales were up 10 percent year-on-year. Even the Aventador had a record year (753 cars), although production ended last September. Like former Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, the Aventador retired at the peak of its capabilities — in this case, the ability to get the nouveau riche to part with hundreds of thousands of dollars for a car with a single-clutch automatic transmission. The most popular Lambo? We regret to inform you that it was the Urus.

Bentley delivered 15,174 cars in 2022, beating 2021’s 14,658 cars, which also set a new record. At this rate, there will soon be more real Bentleys than dogs named Bentleys, which is saying something 15th most popular name for males last year. America was Bentley’s biggest market, and while Bentley doesn’t very charitably break out the most important country on those two continents, we’d bet it’s “USA! USA!” rhymes. and is not Uruguay. The most popular Bentley model? We are very sad to report that it was the Bentayga.

Elsewhere on the island surrounded by Europe but is not part of it, Rolls-Royce sold 6,021 of its ultra-comfortable vehicles in 2022, also a record. Rolls also boasts that, as well as selling a bunch of cars, this mix included a lot of really expensive cars from its bespoke outfit, saying: “Commissions were also at record levels last year, with requests from our customers becoming ever more imaginative and technically sophisticated “. Is it us, or do we detect a hint of desperation in this statement? “Mom, I’ll just be heartbroken if you don’t buy me one Rolls Royce boat tail and a pony with six legs!”

Rolls says the average bespoke car costs half a million euros, to which we say try harder, rich people. Rolls is reticent about how much money it’s made, but it seems like it’s telling us after a third glass of wine that “the brand will make a meaningful contribution to its major shareholder.” That would be one Chester P. Larvae-Smoot, Lord Duke of Underbottom, the sophisticated but ultimately kind-hearted aristocrat who won Rolls-Royce in a 2003 game of snooker. Wait a minute, sorry – no, you’re talking about BMW. They say they send money home to Germany, and they should. The most popular Rolls-Royce of the past year, we hate to tell you, was the Cullinan.

As said, we are still awaiting figures from some other companies, but according to the latest reports (Mercedes Benz S Class sales increase of 24 percent at the end of the third quarter), things looked good. With all this good news, you might want to stop wondering if you can afford to buy one Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica and ask yourself if you can afford not to. But just try to be realistic about how great everything is going. Lamborghini’s 10 percent year-over-year sales increase is good, but not as good as the 15 percent increase in another record year, 2007.